I'm done. It's over. I refuse to continue working on this. This haunted thing (in the spirit of the competition it won) has been pretty much ready for months, but I kept pushing it back for one reason or another. Enough is enough, and I'm posting it as is! It is finished, after all.A glorious 2500 2800 frames of a trial only case. Enjoy.

Feel free to give me feedback and spare no criticism. It is the only way I will work more in the future. Because I like being abused.Wait. That's not right...

A new scene that removes a logic contradiction that's present in the case.

Added one more necessary piece of evidence to one of the deductions, including failure conversation. Walkthrough updated accordingly.

An extra rant from a ranty witness.

Spoiler : Old Updates :

11/01/2019 - A couple of typos fixed and wording changed.03/11/2018 - More bugfixing, including bugs introduced in the last update that actually made the game unplayable.27/10/2018 - Minor dialogue alterations. Bugfixing and typofixing.12/06/2018 - Bugfixing.31/05/2018 - Added the missing mini-sprites to the courtroom background.29/05/2018 - Added new scenes.

Two new prompts for the extra ending.

Two new present options at different points in the trial.

01/05/2018 - Bugfixing.29/04/2018 - Released.

Synopsis:

Spoiler : :

In a shocking turn of events, Athena has been left in charge of a case when her boss, Phoenix Wright, couldn't make it in time for the trial. Apparently, the Chief Prosecutor himself has come to oversee this trial in person! Why could that be...?Wait. What do you mean the defendant is a vampire?

Screenshots:

Spoiler : :

AliNginG PictUres iS hArD

Walkthrough:

Spoiler : :

CE - Cross-examination. CEx with x being the number.PROMPT - Will write a blurb of the prompt followed by the answer.ALTERNATIVE - An alternative way to progress.EXTRA - Leads to extra dialogue but does not progress from the prompt or CEPENALTY - A unique penalty.

CE1Press statements 1, 3, and 4 and present Vladimir Blod, Autopsy Report, or Peaky Sharpe at the last statement.EXTRA: Listen to the co-counsel conversation after pressing tatements 1, 3 and 4. You'll acquire 'Vampiratic!', which you can present at the last statement to advance.EXTRA: If you press the last statement, you will acquire Window information.EXTRA: Press statement 5 to acquire 'Top Floor Key'.

"Who looks guilty?"CarmineEXTRA: PerkyEXTRA: Patrick

CE2Press statement 4, and then press it further to acquire new evidence. Enter the co-counsel conversation and insist that something is suspicious. Follow the propts below in "Co-Counsel".ALTERNATIVE: Press the last statement and, when prompted, present the Body Discovery Anouncement and the Parchment, in any order.

Co-Counsel:"Is there anything suspicious?"Yes."What?"The body discovery report in conjunction with the parchment, in any order.ALTERNATIVE: Present the body discovery report, claim something is wrong with what it says, and then choose the third paragraph. Getting the wrong paragraph provides unique dialogue.EXTRA: Present the Parchment and claim something is wrong with what it says.EXTRA: Phoenix WrightEXTRA: Present the key. You will be prompted. Body Discovery Report is a unique present here. Correct answer is the victim.EXTRA: Autopsy Report. Changes a conversation later.

Examining the PhotoExamine the cage, window, fireplace, and boxes/pot.EXTRA: TableEXTRA ENDING: Examine the Bookshelf, claim its suspicious, that it could be used to hide something, the parchment. The Body Discovery Report points to this, in its 4th paragraph.

Forming a Theory"Why did the note end up there?"Select cage. PATH1ALTERNATIVE: Select pot. PATH2ALTERNATIVE: Select window. PATH3EXTRA: Select bookshelf. If you haven't unlocked the extra ending, you may do so at this point.EXTRA: When you select the bookshelf, you may claim someone tried to hide the key with it.EXTRA: Select fireplace.EXTRA: Select boxes.

PATH1:"What was inside the cage?"A bird."Why a bird?"Select window.ALTERNATIVE: Select pot. PATH1BEXTRA PENALTY: Select bookshelf.EXTRA: Select fireplace."Aaack!"Select either one."Proof an animal lived in the room."Select pot. (There is no penalty for failing and you are stuck until you select it.)

PATH1B:"I have a theory about a bird..."Select window. (There is a penalty for failing, but you are stuck until you select it.) "Aaack!"Select either one.

PATHS REJOIN"When did those two send the bird?"They didn't."Why do you think so?"Small Parchment"It was sent by..."Perky Sharpe

CE3:Press statement 4 and present Perky's updated profile at the last statement.

CE4:Press statement 3 and present Vladimir at the added statement.EXTRA: Press the last statement to add a new one.

"Why did Vladimir hide the fact he was keeping a bat?"He was guilty."Is there a reason to suspect he is guilty?"Present either Perky or Peaky.ALTERNATIVE:Trade secrets."What stops making sense?"Present Vladimir or Body Discovery Report.

"There is a connection between this revelation and the crime."Present Autopsy Report or Peaky Sharpe.

Credits:Do not look in here if you haven't played yet. And if you have, the in-game credits are ten and a half times better.

Spoiler : :

Betatesters:

Gumshoe Gant

Shikomizue

Acid Rain & clcman (Competition)

fanfreak247

Sorry I decided to release it without having you play it again, clcman! This thing has simply been bothering me for too long, and now I'll put it out there and take the brunt of the criticism, if need be.Sprites:

Athena Sprites by Trick and NoComment.

Edgeworth Sprites by Sligneris.

Vladimir and Carmine Sprites by Lind. An extra Carmine Sprite by Enigma.

Patrick Sprites by DragonTrainer.

Phoenix Sprites by Hesseldahl, animated by ApolloGrimoire.

Perky's Sprites done by me.

I'm pretty positive everything is either free to use with credit and/or I got permission. Please tell me if there is something I cannot use, and I will take it down.Music:

Credit to Glen Elg for the Cross-Examination, Lobby and Logic tracks.

Vampire track from Suikoden 2, "Praise be to my master".

Crazy track and Ending track credited to Kevin MacLeod.

Comic track from The Fruit of Grisaia, "Jumbo Fruit Parfait DX".

Last edited by Tiagofvarela on Wed Jan 16, 2019 2:00 pm, edited 12 times in total.

Athena’s 3D model rips? Eh, we already have her sprites that fit more with AJ-era like graphics.

The difference between Athena and Edgy is really upsetting me.

Long time it’s been since the last time I saw this sprite being used. Making him a detective is a creative casting.

Neurotic Edgeworth is lovely.

>Twin sisterShe did it over inheritance. Or the victim is the sister.

>I’m very proud of my many nicknames.Oh, Udgy.

>I’m guilty.>No, you aren’t.>Yes master, I’m innocent.I love it.

I like the father, he acts like a cool dude.

>a (shortened) reportOh u

>By manifesting himself troubled, my master called upon this humble servant. Such is my cue to act.This man isn’t paid enough

>This photoI have flashbacks to the Turnabout of Courage

I feel proud, I’ve solved the puzzle of the parchment falling down.

Well, and I won the trial. Bravo me.

So, now we have a trained bird. Hm, sending the bird before the police arrival wouldn’t give a reason to make him not return. But if a third party used the bird to deliver an evidence to fool the police, and make them believe that the warning was from Vladimir…

Yep, those two didn’t use the bird. The sister did.

Bug. When the judge asks for a report and you present Wrongly Picked Evidence, father is shown twice for a splice second.

Anyway, “do you have a proof of that” is not a question you answer by telling who you do suspect.

Good joke with Edgy shutting down his brain.

Possessed witness has male voice. Unless it’s Patrick.

The bat is the culprit isn’t the true ending as well, isn’t it?

Knew it.

Hm, different options don’t work. Either other last present or I should accuse the detective for throwing the note.

But I deleted my earlier saves, so I can’t go back there this way. But from the look of the walk-through, it seems this is just how it ends.

Anyway, I liked it. Characters were handled well, so the puzzles. I only don't like those overly long press conversations. Turnabout Imperfect is all about press conversations and I think that even in the most complex ones we don't move onto the next statement for so long. And in Imperfect, the gameplay was there. Here, it honestly felt tiresome, at some points.

I also liked Athena here. On a subjective level, I really like her as a character (I find her charming), though objectively she is just ok-ish (it doesn't feel like there is any further continuation of her story, after DD - Phoenix had his relationship with Maya, Apollo also had some things left to discover). But she was written well here and fit perfectly, even if this story amounted to just her having a side-quest.

Athena’s 3D model rips? Eh, we already have her sprites that fit more with AJ-era like graphics.

The difference between Athena and Edgy is really upsetting me.I'm just using them because I like them. I happen to have another case with a Athena and that one doesn't use them, since a lot of people dislike these.Long time it’s been since the last time I saw this sprite being used. Making him a detective is a creative casting.

Neurotic Edgeworth is lovely. :D>Twin sisterShe did it over inheritance. Or the victim is the sister.In at least three initial drafts of the trial she did.>I’m very proud of my many nicknames.Oh, Udgy.

>I’m guilty.>No, you aren’t.>Yes master, I’m innocent.I love it.He is the greatest servant.I like the father, he acts like a cool dude.

>a (shortened) reportOh uYou may have noticed I have something of a 'writes too much' problem. Will not fix.>By manifesting himself troubled, my master called upon this humble servant. Such is my cue to act.This man isn’t paid enoughHe is one hell of a servant.>This photoI have flashbacks to the Turnabout of Courage

I feel proud, I’ve solved the puzzle of the parchment falling down.Everybody does that one first. It's because it has a prompt, isn't it? I only put it there to showcase the possibility and the fact that this trial is a mess. I didn't expect everybody would get it right away.Well, and I won the trial. Bravo me.

So, now we have a trained bird. Hm, sending the bird before the police arrival wouldn’t give a reason to make him not return. But if a third party used the bird to deliver an evidence to fool the police, and make them believe that the warning was from Vladimir…

Yep, those two didn’t use the bird. The sister did.

Bug. When the judge asks for a report and you present Wrongly Picked Evidence, father is shown twice for a splice second. Not sure when this is.Anyway, “do you have a proof of that” is not a question you answer by telling who you do suspect. Absolutely. It was meant as in 'somebody else is there, it is proof of the possibility', but that's not a very intuitive way to word it.I always try to word my questions correctly, but because this question is generic (all choices before it always lead to this one frame) I couldn't personalise the question well and just left it as it was. I've changed it to 'Why do you think that?' for the moment.Good joke with Edgy shutting down his brain.

Hm, different options don’t work. Either other last present or I should accuse the detective for throwing the note.The competition's theme was 'I Want To Believe'. In light of that I ended up making a trial where anything or anyone could be the culprit. You just gotta believe, man.That's also why you can accuse ghosts, or the bat, or Vladimir. Or you can think of anything else you want.That's also why the extra ending foreshadows that the whole trial is a waste of time.But I deleted my earlier saves, so I can’t go back there this way. But from the look of the walk-through, it seems this is just how it ends.

Anyway, I liked it. Characters were handled well, so the puzzles. I only don't like those overly long press conversations. Turnabout Imperfect is all about press conversations and I think that even in the most complex ones we don't move onto the next statement for so long. And in Imperfect, the gameplay was there. Here, it honestly felt tiresome, at some points.I understand. In a way, trying to be concise with what you write is a good thing. I also think it's much better to be concise when you're writing about the case details, for instance. Have each line impart information.Sadly, my writing is 30% case and 70% jokes and I wouldn't have it any other way. That's why a lot of areas end up being too large, and a few others might feel short in comparison, because some advance the case (like most conversations with prompts) whereas others are just filler (most press conversations).

I also liked Athena here. On a subjective level, I really like her as a character (I find her charming), though objectively she is just ok-ish (it doesn't feel like there is any further continuation of her story, after DD - Phoenix had his relationship with Maya, Apollo also had some things left to discover). But she was written well here and fit perfectly, even if this story amounted to just her having a side-quest. I choose which characters will be in a case based on who I want to write. Since I'd already written Apollo and Phoenix, I ended up choosing Athena this time (though I also ended up collaborating in a case with Athena as a protagonist, so RIP me).Any other cases I write after that will have either original characters or people like Gregory and Mia.And so, because most of my writing is inherently selfish and I don't have much interest in developing characters and such, my cases all end up comedies with (what I hope are) solid/interesting contradictions.

I looked into the editor, frames 1638, 1641. You have under there 1 ms frames with the father, likely to set up everyone's placement. Maybe set the camera to be on Athena instead of him being shown.

That's... Hmm...That's how I set up everybody's placement every time. I don't just do it there. I do it every time the Judge or the co-counsel appear. Or the screen changes, basically.I've changed the ones in the vicinity but I won't change all of them. The fact that you only noticed one instance of this shows that it's not that bad.

In the last cross-examination, the player has to present Vladimir's profile to argue that he claims he lost the key, so he couldn't have sent it through the window via the bat. But the Court Record doesn't say he lost the key! I had to trial-and-error this one because I didn't remember that one fact that should have been written down.

In the last cross-examination, the player has to present Vladimir's profile to argue that he claims he lost the key, so he couldn't have sent it through the window via the bat. But the Court Record doesn't say he lost the key! I had to trial-and-error this one because I didn't remember that one fact that should have been written down.

Spoiler : Explanation :

Though I accept Vladimir as a response because he is the best way to prove the contradiction from memory, and might be the thing people remember first if they pressed some of the many conversations where that is mentioned and what happened to the key is discussed, the Body Discovery Report does mention 'the key had gone missing' and is also a valid response. The contradiction stems from the fact that there's no reason to believe Peaky if testimony exists that points to the contrary (as Peaky has very little credibility).

It's a subtle contradiction because it's simultaneously obvious and not intuitive at all. She's offering an explanation and the player may try to prove the explanation is wrong somehow. However, the contradiction is that there was even a need for an explanation. It's all fine and dandy that Peaky knew how the key got there, but in that case, so too should Vladimir. But since the court doesn't know, or Vladimir decided not to tell the court, that in itself is evidence to the contrary.

Edit: Because this sort of contradiction is unintuitive, the co-counsel conversation does say "(At any rate, I don't need to find acontradiction per say... I only need a reason to doubt what she's saying.)"Edit 2: Which I actually need to change to 'per se'.

My point is, the problem could be solved quickly by editing Vladimir's profile and typing in "He lost the key to Peaky's room" or "Claims to have lost the key to Peaky's room".

Spoiler : Designing Contradictions :

It could. That does put me in something of a hard position, however. I think purposefully obscuring information can have a use, but is mostly anti-player. However, if I added that information in, it would make it a 'direct contradiction'. Anyone would look at the two things and immediately notice that X says Z says Y, but Z says W.The most enjoyable contradictions for a player are generally the ones where they made a realisation themselves. Something that wasn't merely 'evidence says X witness says Y'. When you have to use your memory, or make a deduction and only then reach a contradiction, it makes for a better experience. Unfortunately, I don't have the skills to craft testimonies and contradictions that can only be reached through those methods and couldn't feasibly be turned into a direct contradiction between text and evidence.

Because of this, all my contradictions will end up containing some measure of purposefully hidden information. Because this is the last testimony, I wanted it to both be tricky and enjoyable to finally notice. It's not even a matter of memory. It's a matter of a witness testifying about another witness, where said witness does not corroborate the previous. It's not about the direct contradiction, it's about the implied one. If there were a 'godmodding' piece of evidence, you'd present it here.

However, I understand one's frustration when you have to brute-force a contradiction that should be easy. I included the Body Discovery Report precisely so that the direct contradiction would still be there for anybody that didn't perceive the implied contradiction as I described, or didn't remember earlier plot points with Vladimir.If feedbacks starts showing that the last contradiction is unenjoyable or unreasonable, I will most definitely do it as you say. But otherwise, I plan to keep it.

Unless something went horribly wrong when I pressed the "save" button I've updated this case with a couple new scenes. Mainly, a new present option in CE2, a couple of prompts added to the extra ending, for impact, as well as a new present option to it (which brings up an earlier optional segment of the trial, if you went through it). I'll update the OP once I'm not on mobile.